


Color Palette

by SereneSorrow



Series: Colors [4]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:20:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23949766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: There's still a lot left to figure out, but first things first, what's going on with those hollows?Or:Shinji and Ichigo really need to talk, but running and hiding is a choice too. (I didn't say it was a good one~)
Relationships: Hirako Shinji/Kurosaki Ichigo, Hollow Ichigo/Hollow Shinji, Ijnihs Shiroko/Ogichi Shirosaki
Series: Colors [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678906
Kudos: 63





	Color Palette

**Author's Note:**

> What's a good name for Nel to call Shinji? I wound up just saying 'Shii' ... but she calls Ichigo 'Itsygo' so I wanted her to treat Shinji like that too... ack!

“Oi! Kurosaki!” Grimmjow's voice called from farther down the hallway.

The shout made Ichigo turn from where he was standing in front of Shinji's door, where the man was leaning against the door frame and still staring at him. Ichigo was somewhat relieved to find an excuse to escape from the conversation he and Shinji had been having, they'd slept an entire day away in their exhaustion after expending so much reiatsu and then Shinji had insisted they talk but Ichigo was still feeling distinctly uncomfortable after everything that had transpired. Especially since he was now wearing some kind of generic Arrancar outfit that Shinji had pulled out of his closet, since Ichigo's clothes had been torn beyond repair during...

Well Ichigo was honestly trying not to think about it. He'd never had sex before and he wasn't entirely sure what had happened counted, since he was pretty sure his inner hollow had exerted some control over him and he was equally sure that he'd hurt Shinji even if the older Vizard kept denying it. Honestly, it really overshadowed Ichigo's hurt and anger at Shinji over everything that had happened before now, he wasn't sure if he could still be mad now that he'd taken his feelings out on Shinji in such a violent way. Still, he just wasn't ready to let go of feeling hurt by Shinji's prior manipulations and willingness to sacrifice him.

“You finally work out yer frustrations or ya' gonna go at it again?” Grimmjow asked with a snort and a grin that was not at all the murderous glee Ichigo was accustomed to from fighting Grimmjow yet nevertheless sent a thrill of fear down his spine at what Grimmjow was saying he knew.

“What do you- You know about-” Ichigo spluttered, flushing red while Shinji was silent and no help at _all._

“You really expect to throw that kind of power around and not get noticed?” Grimmjow said with another snort, this time disbelieving.

“Oh my god.” Ichigo said reflexively in his mortification as Grimmjow, Harribel and Nel strolled casually toward them down the long white hallway.

“The Números would like to know if an evacuation will be called for, the structural integrity of Las Noches is still compromised and you certainly shook the walls hard enough.” Harribel remained her aloof, removed self as she delivered this intelligence, arms crossed over her chest and eyes seeming completely disinterested.

“Oh my god.” Ichigo repeated, not sure the blank delivery of Harribel's words was better or worse than Grimmjow's leering and innuendo.

“Itsygo! Fighting isn't the only way to solve problems you know! Did you even try to talk to Shii first?” Nel pouted as she came right up to him and glared, hands on her hips and everything.

“Oh my god.” Ichigo swayed back and away from her as he tried to come to terms with every Arrancar in Las Noches being aware of exactly what just happened between himself and Shinji.

“You better have given it to him good, Kurosaki! I don't want you moping around my room again!” Grimmjow taunted them with a serious look in his eyes that said he would kick Ichigo's ass if it happened.

“Hey! Itsygo could have been the bottom! It wouldn't make him any less of a man!” Nel said as she spun to face Grimmjow.

“Tch. I don't lose to bitches!” Grimmjow snapped, half-furious at Nel for some reason, and half just talking trash without meaning.

“Oh my god.” Ichigo repeated to himself, backing away from the three espada until he bumped into Shinji on accident.

His momentum stopped, and the warmth of Shinji's chest against his back made him shiver, but Ichigo was way too intent on escaping this ambush to think about that. Instead he shoved back as unobtrusively as he could until Shinji started moving and then slammed and locked the door between himself and the three bickering hollows.

“Damn.” Ichigo said to himself, leaning his forehead against the door, still too embarrassed to do much but breathe through the freakout his mind was gibbering its way through.

The body pressing up against him suddenly was not something he'd been prepared for, and Ichigo realized that he may not have thought his escape through very well. A minute ago he'd been trying to escape Shinji after all.

“Shinji, what-” Ichigo choked on his words when Shinji's arms wrapped around his middle and lifted him up, and Ichigo found himself blinking down at his knees from where he was now sitting on Shinji's lap in the middle of the floor.

“Well, since you aren't going anywhere anyway we might as well see about the changes to our inner worlds now that we're together.” Shinji said close enough to his ear that Ichigo startled.

“What? What do you mean?” Ichigo asked, trying to turn around to look at Shinji, despite still being held securely in his lap.

It was weird, Ichigo felt awkward where he was sitting but for some reason he had no desire to change the arrangements, and he wasn't sure if he was uncomfortable or not. He couldn't really do much to turn around, except crane his neck to look around at Shinji's face only an inch or so away from his own.

“Well I'm not really sure, but apparently our inner hollows were able to communicate with each other, which means that there has to be some kind of connection of our soulscapes themselves.” Shinji explained. “We should probably meditate and see if we can figure it out.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Ichigo admitted grudgingly, though he didn't know what was bothering him now.

He really just wanted to find a place he could be by himself for a while so that he could figure out how he was really feeling and what he wanted to do next, but Ichigo supposed that Shinji had a point. If something was going on with his inner hollow then he wanted to know what it was, before any other weird or dangerous stuff happened.

“Okay, so how are we going to do that?” Ichigo asked, wondering if Shinji had something specific in mind.

“Just normal meditation should work, I think.” Shinji shrugged, unconcerned with Ichigo's scowl as he hugged Ichigo tighter and leaned his chin on Ichigo's shoulder before closing his eyes.

“Are you serious?” Ichigo asked of himself it seemed when Shinji didn't respond to the words, because apparently he was going to start meditating now, just like this.

With a sigh Ichigo turned to face forward again, trying to ignore his own discomfort. He bit his lip, thinking for a minute. It wasn't that he thought he was in danger, or that Shinji was going to hurt him right now, he was just still bitter about being considered expendable. It was hard to admit to himself that he was being hypocritical about that, when he'd been fully willing to sacrifice himself for any number of people over the last few months, but it was different when he'd thought he had made up his own mind. Now knowing that he was being watched, led, _manipulated_ , well that was hard to swallow, but he supposed that at this point it all came down to whether he thought he could trust that Shinji cared about him more than that now.

Still undecided, Ichigo gave up for a moment, breathing deep and trying to relax in order to meditate. Anyway, maybe it wouldn't matter, maybe Ogichi would say something earth-shattering or attack him or something and everything would make sense again even if it hurt along the way. It took him a lot longer than it had taken Shinji, for Ichigo to finally succumb to the not-quite-sleep darkness and calm that launched him into his soulscape, but Ichigo made it there eventually. He climbed to his feet on the cold window of another skyscraper and looked around, not seeing a difference at first because the second thing he noticed (after the fact that it wasn't raining) was that Shinji was standing near the edge of the same skyscraper Ichigo was standing on.

Ichigo's heartbeat sped up, as he took in the fact that Shinji was actually standing here, in his inner world. Ichigo hadn't expected that when Shinji had said there was a connection between their soulscapes now, that Shinji could actually be _here_ with him. Rubbing suddenly slick palms on his white pants, Ichigo wondered why he was reacting like this, breath short and skin buzzing just from seeing Shinji here inside him-

_Screech._ Ichigos thoughts skipped over that last idea and he got distracted, kicking himself for the double meaning and the way it made him blush. He clenched his fists and stomped forward, determined not to otherwise react to his own thoughts and pretend that he wasn't breathing oddly as he stepped up next to Shinji.

“So you can enter my inner world too? You found the connection or whatever it was?” Ichigo asked without thinking much of it, before he got an answer to his question when he followed Shinji's silent gaze to what was spread out in front of them.

***

It wasn't surprising that Ichigo didn't join him in their inner world right away, Shinji had two centuries of experience with meditating and communicating with his zanpakutou, even if there had been a few decades of trouble with that in the middle there. What was surprising was that it was _their_ inner world, as in the _shared_ space that Shinji was now finding himself standing in the middle of.

Shinji craned his head around to look at the möbius strip he was familiar with, now full of reaching skyscrapers, almost literally scraping the sky in all directions. There weren't any skyscrapers in his inner world, or there hadn't been, just the ever-shifting band of whatever suited his fancy at the time or given the fight he found himself in the middle of. The sense of the buildings was familiar to him though, every one of them held a trace of Ichigo's reiryoku and proved that somehow the two inner worlds had merged into one soulscape.

He didn't really know what to think, and he didn't have Kisuke to consult on the matter, in all their recent re-planning nothing about soulscapes, zanpakutou and inner hollows had really come up in conversation so Shinji didn't even know if Kisuke had suspected something like this was going to happen. Vaguely aware of Ichigo finally appearing behind him, Shinji didn't know what to say to his question, but Ichigo figured out the answer immediately after he asked. The two of them spent a minute side by side, staring out at the new form their soulscape had taken on, just gaping at the looping band of skyscrapers before Ichigo broke the silence again.

“So what does this mean?” Ichigo asked him, probably assuming he had all the answers, which made Shinji a bit uncomfortable.

“I don't really know, soul reapers don't have soulmates, that's a living world thing. I've never really heard of anything like this before.” Shinji said, finally wrenching his eyes away from the sight and turning to Ichigo.

“I guess Zangetsu might know?” Ichigo said as more of a question, looking uncertain of what to do next in the face of Shinji's own ignorance.

Shinji frowned, yes, Sakanade would probably know as well but he didn't sense her anywhere nearby. Ichigo was looking around as though he might spot Zangetsu nearby but Shinji didn't think that he was reaching out with his reiatsu to really call to the zanpakutou spirit.

“Maybe, right now I'm more concerned with the hollows though.” Shinji admitted, as that was the reason he had suggested they try to find this new connection between them.

If the two hollows were going to start causing trouble it would be a good idea to find out just what they thought of this new soulscape, and if they were going to fight each other as much as they fought their soul reapers. Ichigo nodded in agreement, frowning more than scowling as he looked around again, and Shinji wondered if he actually knew how to find his spirits any way other than a visual search. Shinji closed his eyes briefly, reaching out with his own reiatsu, and then tipped his head to get Ichigo's attention.

“I'd say they're both this way.” Shinji said as he stepped off the skyscraper.

Ichigo followed him, but startled at the way his perception flipped the second his feet left the ground. Shinji had barely noticed it, long having learned how his powers worked, and had only adjusted his internal compass to make sure he was heading in the right direction despite the change. Ichigo however, nearly lost his footing as he stumbled and swayed until the dizziness passed. Feeling fairly sure that it wouldn't be the first time up, down, left and right were going to invert between where they were standing and where they were going, Shinji leaned back over and took Ichigo's left hand. It should help Ichigo keep his feet at least, even if he would still need time to get used to the constant shifting of perception that Shinji's inner world was capable of.

“Let me know if you need to stop for a minute.” Shinji said, not wanting to coddle Ichigo _too_ much, sure that it wouldn't be appreciated.

Ichigo nodded and followed along slowly as he got used to the new direction and warily tried to predict the next change. Smirking to himself at the near-impossibility of predicting when and where the change would occur, Shinji just kept walking toward the fluctuating reiatsu of their inner hollows. The two seemed to be rather close to each other, and Shinji worried that they were going to get there just in time to see a fight break out. He wasn't sure if he wanted to get in the middle of something like that but he didn't like to think about the kind of damage that could be done if the two strong hollows really laid into each other in here.

He supposed in hindsight that he should have expected something different after how quiet 'Ijnihs' had been this morning. Nothing expected was happening today, and that really should have clued him in. Unfortunately he wasn't thinking about it in those terms when he turned a corner and resettled against the direction shift again, then lept over the next building only to stop short as he caught sight of the two hollows. He had to yank Ichigo back with him as he ducked, since Ichigo hadn't quite settled after that last change in direction, and they hit the side of the building as a getsuga tensho shot past them.

“What the Hell?” Ichigo shouted, clawing his way back up and heading straight for the battle currently being fought between the two hollows.

*** ***

“Wait!” Shinji hissed, grabbing his wrist and hauling him back.

“What? Why?” Ichigo demanded incredulously, looking around at Shinji.

“I think we should let them settle this themselves.” Shinji suggested, looking again at the two hollows battling in between two of the skyscrapers just next to the one they were now standing on.

Shinji had been worried by the prospect of a fight between the two but so far it looked like they were only using the powers of Sakanade and Zangetsu, not their hollow abilities. Ichigo reluctantly deferred to his suggestion, glaring as he watched the fight, but Shinji couldn't help snickering as Ogichi appeared to have his own trouble with acclimating to the constant shift in direction.

Ichigo elbowed Shinji in the ribs when he laughed at Ogichi's mistake, that impact had looked like it really hurt. Shinji rubbed his ribs absentmindedly, the reprimand cutting off his laughter. Ogichi didn't get up right away from where he'd slammed into the building above them, and Ichigo thought that he had finally figured out that to Ogichi that direction was 'down', whereas from where Ichigo and Shinji were standing it appeared to be 'up'. Shinji's shikai was really confusing, Ichigo decided, and he wondered if Shinji was a less straightforward person than he appeared. Ichigo didn't like the thought that there were more secrets or at least that Shinji might be inclined to hide things or misdirect him in the future if that was the case.

“Are you sure we shouldn't do anything?” Ichigo asked, actually a bit worried for his hollow, who still hadn't gotten up.

“It looks like they've got something to settle between them, I don't think they're just out for blood at the moment.” Shinji was actually unsure of what they could be arguing about, when things had been so quiet just earlier this morning but it did seem like the kind of fight that wouldn't tolerate intervention.

They watched as Ijnihs kicked Ogichi's sword away and turned the younger hollow over, and Ichigo's eyes widened while Shinji's jaw dropped open at what they were seeing. Ijnihs was straddling Ogichi now, and pulling his collar open, which was not at all what either of the spectators had been expecting the next move to be in this 'fight'. Ichigo's hollow didn't seem at all happy with this turn of events as Ijnihs forced his head back to expose his throat and Shinji was reconsidering getting involved. The hollow looked exactly like Ichigo after all, and Shinji didn't like the look of almost-panic on his face. He'd kicked his inner hollow's ass before and he could do it again if he had to, but the exchange of words going forward despite the rough treatment had Shinji hesitating.

“Nah, ya' jus' figured 'cuz yer' soul reaper has higher natural reiryoku reserves that means he's more qualified to be in charge! Way I figure, ya've both got a lot ta' learn.”

Shinji realized that this was a fight for dominance that had arisen after his own submission to Ichigo just a day ago. His inner hollow's words were certainly _an_ opinion, Shinji and Ijnihs did have more experience than Ichigo and Ogichi. Now whether Shinji was going to allow his inner hollow to try to exert his own dominance here was a question he needed to decide the answer to quickly because Ogichi was starting to really struggle beneath Ijnihs as the older hollow bit his throat.

“Now, now” Ijnihs said as he pulled back, “submit _properly_. Really, _'Ijnihs knows his place'_ ,” the older hollow continued in a mocking tone thinly laced with anger before commenting on his own words. “Yer' lucky I played along jus' to get things movin' for 'em.”

“That's what Ogichi was saying to me when-” Ichigo suddenly realized aloud, breaking off when he realized what he was about to say and still feeling too embarrassed to talk about it.

Shinji missed Ogichi's words as Ichigo spoke, puzzling out that the hollows must have- Ah. They must have enacted much the same struggle as he and Ichigo had last night, and Ichigo's anger at him over everything that had piled up had made him want to gain control in some way so the hollows had acted along to make sure that Shinji had submitted to give Ichigo that control he needed, but now Ijnihs was intent on gaining his own control back from Ogichi. Well, fair or not, Shinji wasn't sure he could go along with the manipulative way the hollows were affecting his relationship with his soulmate. He wasn't sure Ichigo had built up the emotional fortitude yet to hold up through the constant back and fourth it was sure to be if Ichigo was the dominant one in their relationship but Ijnihs was the dominant hollow between them, and he was sure that Ichigo didn't have the _experience_ for it. It was likely going to result in this same struggle between both pairs of them every time they had an argument.

Unfortunately Ichigo wasn't thinking as deeply as Shinji was, and had been more embarrassed and confused than worried throughout the exchange, so while Shinji was distracted with his own thoughts the hollows had moved on to the actual action and Shinji started in surprise when Ijnihs rolled Ogichi onto his stomach and ripped the rest of his clothing off. Ichigo blushed when Ogichi went along with it and almost started forward again, thinking maybe he really should interrupt after all. Starting forward, Ichigo forgot again about just how sudden the change in directions affected him, and as soon as he thought that he'd gotten used to the complete 'up is down' shift it all bent out of shape again.

Shinji darted forward and caught Ichigo when he stumbled under the onslaught of vertigo, realizing that Ijnihs was still flipping things around on Ogichi and that the range of his effect was wide enough to catch Ichigo as well. He dragged Ichigo back to the building that seemed safely out of range, holding him up as he gasped raggedly, his head was probably spinning from the successive changes in direction and Shinji's arms tightened around his waist subconsciously at his concern.

By the time his head cleared, his stomach had stopped rebelling and Ichigo was able to raise his head again the hollows were fairly far along and Ichigo had to bite his lip to stop an inadvertent moan from falling from his lips at the sight of Ijnihs pounding into Ogichi like that. He shuddered, eyes wide as he stared at Ijnihs whispering in Ogichi's ear, and Ichigo's stomach clenched as the sight of the two bodies working together sent heat pooling between Ichigo's own legs. The arms wrapped around his waist were suddenly really interesting, and Ichigo's hands clamped around one of them without his eyes ever leaving the hollows. He was so mortified that he wanted to look away but he couldn't seem to stop watching no matter how much he told himself to.

Shinji noticed it when Ichigo's breathing changed, from measured breaths to calm his vertigo to a fast panting that accompanied the light trembling in his body as he watched their hollows. Shinji suppressed a snicker at the obvious arousal, of course it was a natural reaction to what they were seeing but Ichigo probably wasn't feeling secure enough at the moment to endure laughter at his predicament.

Ichigo was still staring when Shinji's hand crept down the front of his pants and Ichigo shuddered against the body at his back, eyes wide already from what he was watching widening even further when Shinji squeezed his dick through his pants.

“Oh-” Ichigo gasped “ungh...” he trailed off when Shinji's hand slipped _into_ his pants.

Shinji didn't waste a lot of time teasing Ichigo, the hollows were nearly finished and he knew that Ichigo would be more uncomfortable than anything once the 'show' was over. As Shinji ran his hand over Ichigo's hard flesh the younger Vizard leaned back into him as hard as he could and Shinji tightened his arms around him. He didn't try to meet Ichigo's eyes, the younger was staring unblinkingly up at the two pale bodies writhing together, instead he sped up his movements as Ichigo began thrusting into his hand.

“Ah-” Ichigo gasped, open-mouthed as Shinji's hand ran over him again and again.

The sight above him was getting a bit blurry, and Ichigo gasped for breath harshly through his open mouth, his hips thrusting uncontrollably even though Shinji really wasn't doing much at all. It was still more than enough and Ichigo nearly bit his lip hard enough to bleed when with one thrust and a twist of Shinji's wrist he came so hard that his back bowed and his whole body shook. He nearly collapsed but Shinji's arm around him was enough to keep him from falling, and as Shinji kept stroking him through the last shudders of his release Ichigo saw that Ijnihs was holding Ogichi who looked like he had passed out.

Ichigo let his eyes drift closed as he tried to steady his breathing, thinking about that. Ogichi in Ijnihs' arms, and himself here in Shinji's. He _felt_ safe, he felt like he could trust Shinji to take care of him, he _felt_ like he could let go of his doubts and believe that Shinji wouldn't ever use him like that again. Even if Urahara-san did have other plans or something...

_'Shinji wouldn't just go along with it, right?'_ Ichigo asked himself, trying to believe that he would take care of Ichigo now, because they were soulmates, because Ijnihs would protect his Ogichi and Shinji would protect his Ichigo.

It seemed like a weird thought, but Ichigo couldn't puzzle it out at the moment, because he was too busy catching his breath and trying to still his shaking limbs. The world around him was going a bit dim, actually, and Ichigo wasn't quite sure why.

Shinji had barely removed his hand and straightened out Ichigo's clothing when he felt Ichigo slump, unconscious in his arms. Suddenly he was left holding air as Ichigo disappeared from their soulscape and he raised an eyebrow at that, Ichigo must have fallen asleep after he'd come and thus fallen out of his meditation. Shinji looked back up at the hollows, where apparently Ijnihs had finally noticed him. Ijnihs was grinning from were he laid underneath Ogichi now, Ogichi's body splayed rather obscenely on top of him with his bare front on full display to Shinji's eyes. The younger hollow looked like he'd passed out too, but Ijnihs was still running his hand over the front of his body. Shinji's lips twitched between the impulse to leer and frown at the sight, unsure of exactly how he should feel about it.

“Ya' enjoy the show so much yer' wantin' a repeat or what?” Ijnihs called down/up to him in response to Shinji's gaze.

“You aren't going to hurt him, are you?” Shinji had to ask, he wouldn't feel right about leaving if his inner hollow was going to harm Ichigo's own inner hollow while he was vulnerable.

“Are you?” Ijnihs asked with a glare, arms tightening around Ogichi as he licked a bite mark on the younger hollow's neck.

Shinji did frown then, because Ijnihs wasn't talking about Ogichi. “No.”

“Then what's tha' problem?” Ijnihs snickered, eyes dancing again with his victory.

With a sigh, Shinji supposed that was as close to a straight agreement not to harm either Ichigo or Ogichi as he was going to get. Feeling mostly reassured, he slipped out of his own meditation and scooped Ichigo up out of his lap to lay him back on his bed, and after they'd just (finally) gotten out of it too. He snickered at that as he tucked Ichigo into the bed, and then reclined on the other side, staring at the door where he could still vaguely feel the three espada hovering, looked like there was no escape for now, he'd have to wait out the spectators if he wanted to sneak off to the kitchens, man he was really getting hungry.

Ichigo muttered something in his sleep and Shinji slipped one hand under the sheet to lace their fingers together. Ichigo's mumbling cut off and he breathed more evenly, so Shinji let his own eyes drift closed, they still needed to talk, but this was better. They'd be able to work things out, Shinji was sure of it now.

**Author's Note:**

> (By the way, Grimmjow doesn't really care how Ichigo and Shinji do what, he just likes provoking people!)
> 
> Ha. So I found a way to get out of writing the actual 'working things out' conversation. Ha! No, really that just kinda happened... also this whole thing is three times longer than I thought it would be, so wow. It was also going to be set a few days or a few weeks after Color Reject... but I really was drawing a blank on how to resolve everything and then it just happened when I started typing, so instead it takes place at the same time, eh~
> 
> And the series is done for now... It doesn't really seem finished but it's ending on a less conflicted note, so if I happen to think of anything to add then I will, but I'm satisfied with where it is for now... so too bad! :D


End file.
